In Luke 11, we are introduced to the most famous prayer of them all. Luke says that when Jesus uttered this model prayer — which we call “The Lord’s Prayer” — it happened “one day” when Jesus was praying “in a certain place.” Curious Christians might ask, “Well, what day was it? Where did this happen?”
Given Luke’s considerable narrative skill, you have to assume there was a reason for the ambiguity. I think it’s because the disciples saw Jesus praying so often that it was difficult to recall the precise day and place the Lord’s Prayer was delivered as a matter of instruction. Had Jesus prayed only rarely, or only on certain high ceremonial occasions, it might have been both easy and important to record a few more details.
We might think the disciples were simply asking for words — the right formulation to use when praying. But I think that sells them short. I suspect they were inquiring about how they could, in imitation of their master, turn the entirety of their lives into an extended act of prayer. In the Apostle Paul’s words, how could they learn to “pray without ceasing?” (1 Thess. 5:17)
Jesus’ prayer reminds us in each petition and phrase that a relationship with God is an all-encompassing reality. He taught them to pray for the hallowing of God’s very Name. He taught them to pray for the coming of the Kingdom — the very reign of God. He taught them to pray for daily bread and for forgiveness, the elimination of indebtedness and the courage to let debts go. He taught them to pray to be forgiven on the basis that we are ourselves engaged in acts of forgiveness all the time. He taught them to pray not to be led into temptation. In short, the Lord’s Prayer is an invitation to bring everything of our lives before God every day.
In making prayer an all-encompassing, daily practice, Jesus shows us how prayer in his name opens the door to an unending relationship with the Father — who gives us all good things and who always has time to hear.
And so unceasing prayer is the means of cultivating a relationship offered to us by Jesus, one in which our persistence is ultimately validated by the gift of God’s own self. To make that clear, Jesus declares as he concludes his teaching on prayer in Luke 11:13: “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
The prayer Jesus gave was all about asking for bread, forgiveness, and the avoidance of temptation — the stuff of our daily living. So how remarkable it is to arrive at the conclusion of this teaching on prayer and hear Jesus say that God will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.
Whether we know it at any given moment, in all our praying, in all our asking and begging and pleading with God, what we are finally asking for — and what we will surely in the end receive — is nothing less than the indwelling Spirit of the Living God. We pray in the power of this Spirit, our sacred companion, who brings to us the fullness of Christ Jesus in our hearts. When we pray in the power of the Spirit, we find that same Spirit living in us and assuring us that no matter what happens, we serve a loving God who holds us tenderly every moment of our lives.
In our lives, every prayer helps us remain connected to the deepest assurance of our life with God. Again, in Paul’s words: “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:38-39) Even at the end of our rope, the Holy Spirit is in us every time we pray.
Be encouraged! The evidence of that abiding love comes through the faithful ministry of the Spirit, assuring us all that in every season of life and prayer, the Gospel is still true, the hope of the resurrection is still real, and the risen Jesus remains with us by his Spirit. This is Good News, indeed.
Grace and Peace,